Petronas to start drilling operations in Antique
Malaysian oil company Petronas is sending over its offshore oilrig to conduct drilling operations in the waters off Culasi town in northern Antique.
Two of its top officials will also be briefing officials of the province about its oil exploration. The planned drilling operation will confirm the presence of oil deposits in commercial quantities in the said area.
The oil rig is set to arrive this month, Gov. Salvacion Perez said yesterday. In line with this, the governor said that she has already disseminated this information among the residents of the area.
"The people might be shocked to see an oil rig," she stressed.
Petronas engineers initially estimated the volume to be at 160 million barrels.
Perez said that initial tests show the "positive" presence of oil, meaning that the oil deposit is of such quantity as to be viable for commercial production.
Next week, officials of Petronas will be briefing Perez and the town mayors about the status of the oil exploration in the province. Two high-ranking officials of the giant oil firm are already in Manila discussing matters with the Philippine National Oil Corporation.
The oil exploration is a joint undertaking of the PNOC and Petronas. Perez said that Petronas and PNOC shoulder 80% and 20% respectively of the exploration costs.
"We are excited, the national government is excited about it because this is one of the biggest oil finds," Perez expressed. "If indeed there is oil in the site, then Antique is a very lucky province." She said that 160 million barrels of oil would mean a lot to the country.
"You can easily estimate how the province, the region and the whole country will benefit from this oil discovery," she pointed out.
However, Perez stressed the need to know the impact on the environment. The area is situated near Boracay island, an internationally-known tourist destination in Aklan.
She said that they will ask Petronas officials of the impact the digging operations would have on the environment.
Perez said that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has issued a certificate of non-coverage to Petronas, adding that Petronas has complied with all the requirements.